The Eighth Issue

The Eighth Issue

A Summary of the Eighth Issue

We were going to ask in many different degrees in The Seventh Issue concerning the Resurrection, yet the answer of our Creator with His Names proved sufficient in conferring such strong certainty and conviction in us that no need remained to ask further questions. For that reason, we sufficed ourselves with that.

Now in this issue, [only] one percent of the benefits and fruits realised through faith in the hereafter concerning both the bliss of this world and the bliss of the hereafter will be summarised. Indeed, the section related to the bliss of the hereafter we will entrust to The Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’l-Mu‘jizu’l-Bayān) - for after its explanations, there remains no need for any other explanations whatever.

Here, entrusting the section relating to the bliss of this world to [the rest of] The Book of Light, we will mention only three or four of the hundreds of fruits related to man’s personal and societal life in short encapsulations.

[Benefits of faith in the Hereafter]

Its First Benefit

Contrary to other living beings - just as man is attached to his home, so too is he attached to this world, 

and just as he is related to his relatives, so too is he related powerfully and naturally to all other human beings.

Just as he desires temporary survival in this world, so too does he yearn longingly for eternal life in the eternal abode. Just as he strives to supply his stomach’s need for food, so too is he compelled by his innate disposition to supply the vast scope of meals and nourishment, as vast as this world and indeed extending on into endless eternity, that the stomachs of his intellect, heart, spirit and humanity are in need of. He strives actively for this; and he has desires and demands that nothing other than endless bliss can fulfil.

What’s more, as was alluded to in The Tenth Word, in my childhood, I once asked my imagination ‘would you prefer a life that goes on for a million years and a life like a king of this world but that ends with you, after which is nothingness and annihilation - or would you prefer an eternal existence, though it be ordinary and filled with hardship?’ I saw that it desired the second and showed disdain towards the first, and sighed.

‘I want eternal life, be it even [in] hell’, it said.

Since the pleasures of this world cannot satiate the power of imagination that is one of the servants of man’s quiddity (māhiyyah), (37) there can be no doubt that man’s all-embracing (38) quiddity must in its innate nature have some relationship to eternity.

For absolutely destitute man attached to those endless desires and hopes, and whose capital is a [mere] part of partial free choice; faith in the Hereafter is an immense treasure that is more than sufficient, and the pivot of bliss and pleasure,

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37. Māhiyyah (Quiddity): The real nature or essence of a thing; that which makes a thing what it is. Just as the Arabic ماهية comes from ما 'what' and هي 'it' ('what it is') the word quiddity comes from the Latin quid 'what' and -tas, expressing state or condition.

38. All-embracingness or comprehensiveness: Jāmi‘iyyāh, or "all-embracingness" literally refers to the quality of "bringing together" numerous entities or attributes. As a technical term when referring to man, it denotes the manner in which human beings, and most eminently the Holy Prophet have been created by Allāh to possess amongst all creatures the most all-embracing and comprehensive capacity to manifest and reveal the widest range of the Names and Attributes of Allāh within their own beings. This all-embracingness then constitutes the pivot of man's spiritual ascension and his journey to reach maximal spiritual perfection. As Nursī tells us in The Thirteenth Flash, "The Majestic Creator (Al-Khāliqu Dhu’l-Jalāl) of this universe has two types of Names, those of beauty (jamāl), and those of majesty (jalāl); now, these Names of beauty and majesty demand that their spheres of influence (aḥkām) become revealed in particular, independent manifestations. It is for this reason that the Majestic Creator has mixed opposites in the universe with one another, and has placed each one facing the other, and in a state of [attempting to] outdo one another... This is why He made [this] law of competition take an even more extraordinary form in human beings than in other creatures, for [man] is the all-embracing fruit of the tree of creation, and [this is why] He opened the door of spiritual struggle before him, which is the pivot for all [types] of man's spiritual ascension."

The second form of "all-embracingness" enjoyed by man is entailed by the foregoing, and involves the numerous abilities that man possesses (more even than the angels), in virtue of his all-embracing essence, which manifests a more comprehensive variety of Divine Names and Attributes than any other creature. The third form is the manner in which man constitutes a microcosmic encapsulation of the macrocosm, that is, of the cosmos itself. Allāh has placed a sample and exemplar of all of the material and spiritual realms into man's nature; he is as if "filtered cream" of the cosmos, and has thus gathered all of the worlds within himself. (For more information about comprehensiveness or all-embracingness, please see The Staff of Moses (‘alayhissalām), The Epistle on Gratitude, The Words, The Twenty-eighth Word, The Words, The Twenty-third Word)

and the recourse for all seeking for help and the place to return to, and the cornerstone of solace faced with the limitless anxieties of the world, and all this is so important a fruit and so vast a benefit that it would be a small price to pay were man to sacrifice his entire life in this world in order to win unto it.

Its Second Fruit, and a benefit relating to personal life

[This is] a very important fruit, previously explained in The Third Issue, and in one of the Footnotes to A Guide for Youth. Yes, the most important anxiety perpetually occupying each human being is exactly how he will enter into that place of execution, the graveyard, that his beloved friends and his relatives have already entered into.

When this poor human being, who would sacrifice his soul for a single friend, pictures the annihilation of thousands, nay millions or billions of his beloveds in an endless separation, he suffers at this thought more than he would do in hell. Yet just at that moment, faith in the hereafter came to him and opened his eyes and removed the veil [that had been over them]. ‘Look!’ it said to him, and he looked thus, with that faith.

By means of it, in his seeing that his loved ones have been delivered from endless death and annihilation and joyously await him in a luminous world, he tasted a spiritual pleasure that bespeaks of the pleasure of paradise.

We will cut this short here, sufficing ourselves with this, as this conclusion has been expounded with its proofs [elsewhere] in The Book of Light. 

Its third benefit, relating to personal life

Man’s superiority over other living creatures and the loftiness of his station are in respect only of his exalted traits of character, his all-embracing abilities, his universal modes of worship, and the expansive existential spheres [in which he lives].

However, man takes on traits of character like zeal, love, brotherhood and humanity only in terms of the criterion and measurement of the short span of the current moment, which is engirdled by the past and the future that are not only non-existent but dead and dark too.

For example: He loves and serves his father, brother, wife, nation and homeland, none of whom he had known before [he was born], and whom, after he is separated from them, he will never be able to see again. He is only very rarely enabled to be a perfect, sincere friend to them, and his character traits and perfection become diminished in quality in a manner proportionate to this. When, due to his human intellect, he [is about to] fall headlong down to a station in which he is lower and weaker than the animals, having been [potentially] better and nobler than them, faith in the hereafter comes suddenly to his assistance.

It transforms his time, as narrow as a grave, into a time so expansive that it contains both past and future time, and it shows him a sphere of existence as vast as the entirety of this world, nay, that reaches from beginningless eternity unto endless eternity. He loves his father because he will be a father even in the abode of bliss and in the world of spirits; he loves his brother thinking that he will be a brother endlessly; 

he loves his wife, knowing that she will also be his most beautiful life-companion even in paradise, and he respects them, and has compassion for them, and helps them.

He [no longer] makes these important services that exist for the sake of his relationships in the vast, expansive sphere of life and existence, into tools for the sake of the trivial worldly matters and insignificant motives and benefits of this world.

He is thus enabled to offer serious loyalty and perfect sincerity, and his perfections and character traits begin to ascend [to a lofty state]; and in a quality proportionate to this and according to the degree to [which he has attained in loyalty and sincerity], his humanity will also ascend.

This human being, who cannot attain even to the level of a sparrow in terms of enjoyment in this life, in this way becomes the most honoured and blissful guest in the universe and above all animals, and to the Owner of the universe, becomes the most beloved and well-received servant. This conclusion has been curtailed here too, sufficing with the exposition of it with proofs provided elsewhere in The Book of Light.



Its fourth benefit that is related to man’s societal life

The summary of the conclusion, fully explained in The Ninth Ray, runs as follows:

Children, who constitute a fourth of humanity, can only live lives befitting human dignity and can only bear man’s innate potentialities by means of faith in the hereafter. Otherwise, they live frivolous lives, playing with their childish baby toys in order to numb themselves and to make themselves forget their painful anxieties. 

For the constant deaths of other children around them have a severe impact on their delicate minds and on their weak hearts that carry such distant future hopes, and their feeble spirits are unable to put up any resistance. Yet, when those deaths threaten to make the life and mind of this poor little thing into instruments of torture, through the instruction of faith in the hereafter he instead comes to feel a gladness and tranquility instead of the worry and anxiety that he had attempted to hide from behind his toys, hoping that he would not see [the deaths around him].

He says ‘my brother or my friend who died is now a bird in paradise, and he is enjoying himself there more than we are here, and he freely wanders about there. And my mother died but she went to the Mercy of Allāh, and she will one day again press me to her bosom and play with me, and I will see my beloved, kind mother again.’ Thus is he able to live a life befitting human dignity.

Likewise, old people, who also make up a fourth of humanity, can find consolation against the impending extinguishment of their lives, and their entering the underside of the earth, and the shutting up of their beautiful, delightful world, solely in the faith in the hereafter. Without this, all of those merciful, revered fathers and sacrificing, compassionate mothers would suffer from lamentations in their spirits, and from tumult in their hearts that would turn the world into a dungeon of despondency, and their lives into an agonising severe torment [almost unbearable to them]. 

Yet faith in the hereafter says to them: ‘Do not worry. Yours is an endless youth; it will come about. A radiant life an everlasting existence awaits you. In joy will you once more meet your children and kinsfolk whom you had lost. All your good deeds have been preserved and you will obtain your rewards’. It is in this way that faith in the hereafter bestows such solace and joy upon them that were each of them to be overwhelmed by one hundred simultaneous old ages, this would not cause them despair.

[The same goes for] young people, who make up a third of humanity. They can be subject to furious outbursts and unable to control their feelings, their reckless and daring intellects not always enabling them to be prudent.

Should they lose their faith in the hereafter and should they be heedless of the torment of hell, the property and dignity of decent people and the repose and honour of the old and weak in society may well become endangered. Sometimes certain of them might ruin a happy family’s felicity. For certain of them are ready to ruin the happiness of a family just for the sake of pleasure lasting a single minute - and such a person will have to suffer for four or five years thereafter in a prison like the one we are now in, turning thus into a type of monstrous animal.

Yet if faith in the hereafter comes to the aid of this young person, he will be able to quickly come to his senses. All of a sudden, he will start to feel pity and respect for the people he had previously wished to wrongfully transgress against, saying ‘the government secret agents do not see me, 

I am able to hide from them it is true, yet the angels of the Majestic Sultan Who maintains a hellish dungeon see me and record my evil deeds. I am not unrestrictedly free, but I am a traveller with certain duties and one day I too will be old and weak like these people’. We again curtail our treatment of this issue here, sufficing with the conclusion pertaining to it that has also been provided alongside its proofs elsewhere in The Book of Light.

Likewise, there are those who represent another important division of humanity, that is, the sick and oppressed, and people who are, like us, suffering tribulations, the poor and the imprisoned, who have been condemned to severe punishments.



If faith in the Hereafter hastens not to their aid, the death continually taking shape before the very eyes of any given one of them, through the reminders given by his illnesses, or of the treachery of the arrogant tyrant that he is unable to avenge and from which he is unable to preserve his dignity; the painful despair stemming from his having lost his wealth and children futilely in the terrible disasters that have struck him, and the aggrieved depression engendered by the five or ten years of suffering of the like of this prison that we are in, all for the sake of pleasures lasting one or two minutes or one or two hours - there is no doubt that all this turns the world into a dungeon and life into agonising torture for those poor people. Yet they will instantly breathe a sigh of relief if faith in the hereafter hastens to their aid. Their constriction, despair and anxiety and desire for revenge will diminish to some extent, and depending on the degree of faith [realised by the individual], it may even disappear completely. 

This such that I can truly say that if faith in the hereafter had not come to the aid of myself and a number of my brothers in this prison of ours that we entered without justification, and in this horrendous tribulation of ours, coping with even a single day of it would have been like death to us, which would have driven us to resign from life itself. Yet endless praise be to Allāh; despite my suffering from the pain that this tribulation is causing to my many brothers here who are more beloved to me than my own self, and despite my sorrow at the loss and the weeping of my very precious, beautifully decorated, gilded books as well as thousands of epistles of The Book of Light that are more beloved to me than my own eyes, and despite the fact that since long ago I have not been able to bear even a minor betrayal or to have others exercise control over me, I must assure you, swearing by Allāh, that the light and strength of faith in the hereafter has bestowed such patience, endurance, solace and fortitude upon me - perhaps indeed, it has conferred a deep yearning and energy to win unto greater reward, struggling in a rewarding trial.



I consider myself to now be in a lovely and auspicious school worthy of the name ‘The Yūsufian School’, just as I said at the beginning of this rather short epistle. Had it not been for the sicknesses with which I am at times afflicted, and fussiness caused by old age, I would have prepared better for my lessons, in a more perfect manner and in a state of repose. In any case, due to the present context we have gone off topic. I ask your pardon. 

Now, the little world of every human being and indeed his own little paradise is his own home. Yet if faith in the hereafter is not to be the factor that determines the happiness of that home, every individual therein will end up suffering from painful torments and anxieties to an extent corresponding to the degree of their compassion, love and attachment to the others in the home. That paradise of theirs will either turn into a hell or it will numb their intellect with temporary entertainments and debaucherous enjoyments.

Their similitude in this case is that of an ostrich seeing a hunter which, being unable to flee or fly, buries its head in the sand in order not to be seen. [In the same way] does every individual [in this faithless house] bury their heads into heedlessness (ghaflah) so that death, evanescence and separation do not see them. That is, they find a temporary, simpleton’s solution in annulling their emotions and negating their senses fleetingly. Because, a mother, for example, trembles in fear every time she sees her offspring - who she would sacrifice her own spirit for - being exposed to danger. And children, powerless to save their fathers and siblings from unremitting misfortunes, feel perpetual sadness and fear.

Thus, the life of this family which is imagined happy, in many different ways suffers the loss of its happiness in the turbulent and unstable life of this world. Relationships and family ties in such a short life do not of themselves confer true loyalty for one another, nor perfect sincerity, nor service and love totally pure and devoid of ulterior motives. [A family’s] moral conduct with one another becomes weakened 

in direct proportion to this and it can indeed collapse, [and degenerate entirely]. Yet if faith in the hereafter enters this home, it lights it up immediately.

The attachment, compassion, kinship and love existing between the members of that family is not then regulated by the extremely short period of time they spend together [in this world], rather they instead truly respect, love, show compassion to one another, both feel and show true loyalty for one another, all in light of the fact that their relationship will continue even in the realm of the hereafter and endless bliss. Thus do they overlook each other’s shortcomings, [nor do they dwell on one another’s mistakes, but they rather pardon each other]. At this, their moral conduct is elevated and a human’s true happiness begins with its flourishing in this very home. Since the exposition of this meaning also exists elsewhere in The Book of Light along with its proofs, it should be sufficient to abridge matters here.



Moreover, every city is in the same way a vast house for its inhabitants. Should faith in the hereafter not hold sway over the members of that great family, states and actions like seeds of grudges, self-interest, fraud, egotism, affectation and ostentation, bribery and deception will replace sincerity, honesty, virtue, patriotism, sacrifice, being set on reward in the hereafter and the good pleasure of Allāh that is the basis of all good character. Thus, anarchy and savagery will reign in the name of apparent security and humanity and that town life will be poisoned. Children will begin defying [their elders], the youth getting drunk, the strong oppressing, and the old weeping. 

In an analogous way, a country is also [a type of] home. Moreover, a homeland is a national family’s house. Should faith in the hereafter rule these vast homes, sincere respect, serious compassion, love and cooperation free of bribery, service and social relations free of fraud, beneficence and virtue free of ostentation and greatness and ascendancy free of egotism [instantly] begin to flourish. To children, faith in the hereafter says ‘there is a paradise, so leave this defiance of yours’ thereby maturing [and refining] them with the lesson of the Qur’ān. To youth, it says ‘there is a hell, so leave your drunkenness,’ thereby causing them to return to their senses. To the tyrant, it says ‘there is a ferocious punishment, and you will receive its blows,’ prompting him to bow to justice. To the old person, it says ‘the endlessly eternal bliss of the hereafter, greater than any of the types of happiness that have now fallen from your grasp, and a fresh eternal youth await you! Strive then to win unto them!’ This causes his weeping to turn into laughter.

[Faith in the hereafter] manifests its beautiful influence analogously in every division of being, whether universal and particular, and illuminates them all. Let the sociologists and moral philosophers [who claim] to care about mankind’s societal life then listen up! (39)



Now, were you to analogously draw out, from the five or six encapsulations that we have pointed to, the thousands of other benefits contained within faith in the hereafter, you would understand with certainty that the pivot of happiness in the two realms and the two lives is only faith, [and nothing other]. 

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39. Literal: let their ears ring

[On the corporeality of the resurrection]

Now, in the face of feeble doubts about the corporeality (40) of the resurrection, let us say the following as only a short indication, sufficing ourselves [for a complete treatment] with the powerful answers contained within The Twenty-eighth Word, as well as in other of the epistles in ‘The Book of Light’:

The most all-embracing mirror of the Divine Names inheres in corporeality; and the richest of the Divine purposes underlying the creation of the universe and its very active centre are in corporeality; and the greatest number of forms and the most colourful of the benefactions of Lordship exist in corporeality; and the most abundant seeds of the prayers with which man calls on his Creator in the languages of his needs and of the gratitude that he presents to Him, are again in corporeality and the largest variety of seeds of the worlds of spirituality and immateriality are yet again in corporeality.

Through drawing conclusions analogous to these and since hundreds of universal realities are concentrated in corporeality, [know that] The Wise Creator coats caravan after caravan of beings with existence with a rapid and astonishing efficiency in order to proliferate corporeality upon the face of the earth, and in order to make those bodies serve as the loci of the manifestation of the realities aforementioned; He sends them to that exhibition. Then, He discharges them and sends others [into their place].

In this way does He make the workshop of the universe to be continually at work. It weaves corporeal wares and He makes the earth like unto a plantation for the hereafter and for paradise. Indeed, just in order to satisfy man’s bodily stomach, and in order to attentively listen to that stomach’s prayer

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40. Corporeal (jismānī): material; having a material body. (corporeality: jismānīyat)

- which it did regarding its survival - and accept its prayers in the language of its state, He brings to corporeality the most succulent foods and numberless precious blessings in hundreds of thousands of different forms and thousands of types of different tastes. All of the foregoing self-evidently and indubitably manifests that the predominant pleasures of paradise and the most diverse of them in the hereafter are corporeal, and that the most central blessings of the eternal bliss, that all desire and with which all are already on intimate terms, are of a corporeal nature.

I wonder, is it really possible or conceivable that an Omnipotent, Compassionate and All-knowing Generous Being Who answers the physical stomach’s prayer to survive [of each individual] said in the language of its state, and Who makes it grateful with physical foods in which inhere endless miracles, responding in act, perpetually, and not by chance but intentionally - [is it really possible that] He would not accept the high, universal, limitless prayers of mankind’s collective stomachs - man who is the ultimate fruit of the entire cosmos, and Allāh’s vicegerent (khalīfa) on earth, and the best of creatures and worshippers of the Creator when it is the case that he is given the corporeal pleasures that he always desires and that he is on intimate terms with, and that his innate nature demands?



Would his limitless collective prayers, that [come from the desire] for supreme satiation in the eternal realm not be accepted? Would [his supplication] not be responded to in act, through the corporeal resurrection being brought about?

Would He not put man into a state of endless gratification?

For this to happen, it would be like someone hearing the sound of a fly whilst not hearing the sound of thunder, or someone who equips a single ordinary soldier [in an army] with ideal equipment and tools, yet does not help the entire army in their common need in any way nor gives importance to them. Surely you agree that this is impossible and absurd a hundred fold.

Yes, as explicitly stated by the conclusive clarity of the verse وَفِيهَا مَا تَشْتَهِيهِ الْأَنْفُسُ وَتَلَذُّ الْأَعْيُنُ (a) in a form befitting paradise man will see the corporeal pleasures with which he had become more accustomed than anything else, and samples of which he had tasted in this world.

And he will be given the rewards for the sincere gratitude and particular acts of worship that his organs engaged in, like his tongue, eye and ear, in the form of the physical pleasures that are particular to those organs. The Qur’ān of Miraculous Exposition (Al-Qur’ānu’l-Mu‘jizu’l-Bayān) explains the physical pleasures in such an explicit fashion that it is out of the sphere of possibility not to accept the evident meaning by [rather contrived] interpretations.

As a result, the fruits and outcomes of faith in the hereafter point to the following:

Just like the reality and needs of one of man’s organs, his stomach, conclusively point to the existence of food, so too do man’s reality, perfections, innate needs, endless desires

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a Therein is all that souls desire, and that eyes delight in (Qur’ān: Az-Zukhruf, 43:71) 

for eternity and capacities, as well as the realities of faith in the hereafter that entail the aforementioned outcomes and benefits, all point even more conclusively to the existence of the hereafter, of paradise, and of the ever-abiding corporeal pleasures; they testify that they will all occur and be realised.

The [different] sections of The Book of Light also, especially The Tenth Word, two stations of The Twenty-eighth Word, The Twenty-ninth Word, The Ninth Ray, and The Epistle of Intimate Supplication (Al-Munājāt) has dazzlingly established with proofs, in a way that leaves no room for doubt that the reality of the perfections of this universe, and the meaningful creational signs and all of the realities pertaining to the aforementioned realities of humanity all point and testify to that the realm of the hereafter exists and will be realised, and that the Resurrection is coming and the opening of paradise and hell will take place. We will abridge this long issue here, entrusting it to the epistles we have mentioned.

[On Hell]

The Qur’ān’s elucidations concerning hell are so clear and manifest that

they left no need for further explanation. We will only clarify a very short encapsulation of

a few subtle points that do away with one or two feeble doubts and

we will entrust the details to the rest of The Book of Light.

The First Subtle Point: The idea of hell does not, in the fear that it arouses in man, take anything away from the pleasures of the aforementioned fruits of faith. This is because to a frightened person, the limitless lordly mercy says ‘Come to me - enter through the gate of repentance! [It does this] in order that the existence of hell not frighten you, but rather to fully acquaint you with the pleasures of paradise,

and in order to take revenge for you and for the limitless number of creatures whose rights have been breached, thereby quenching your thirst for revenge and making you happy.’

And if you happen to be drowned in misguidance (ḍalālah) and you are unable to extract yourself therefrom, once again the existence of hell is still a thousand times better for you than annihilation. It is a mercy for the disbelievers in a certain way, for human beings and even animals with young to take pleasure and joy in their relatives, children and loved ones. To some degree this makes them joyful.

Thus, O you atheist! Due to your misguidance, you will either fall into non-being through endless execution, or you will enter hell. Now non-being, which is pure evil, would burn your spirit, heart and human quiddity thousands of times more severely than the fires of hell - for all of your beloved ones, relatives, ancestors and descendants by the happiness of whom you yourself are to some degree made happy, will become nothing just as you have.

For if hell were not to exist, neither would paradise. Everything, due to your disbelief, would fall into non-being. However, were you to enter hell, staying thereby within the sphere of existence, your beloved ones and relatives would either be happy in paradise, or would at least be within the spheres of existence attaining thereby instances of Divine mercy in a certain way. That is to say, you must favour the existence of hell in any case. Adopting a hostile attitude towards hell means favouring non-being, which entails your favouring the nonexistence of your limitless number of friends’ happiness. 

Yes, hell is an existing land, awe-inspiring and majestic, that fulfils the role of a wise and just prison possessed by the Majestic Ruler of the sphere of existence - existence, that is pure good. Other than its taking on the role of prison, it has a number of other functions and a great number of wisdoms and services belonging to the eternal world. It is also the awe-inspiring dwelling place of many living creatures, like the angels of hell.

The Second Subtle Point: The existence and severe torment of hell is not the contradictory of the existence of the unlimited mercy, true justice and unwasteful and finely balanced wisdom. Rather, it is the mercy, justice and wisdom themselves that necessitate its existence. For just as the punishment of a tyrant who has transgressed against the rights of thousands of innocents, and the killing of a beast that has ripped apart hundreds of downtrodden animals are both acts of justice containing a thousand mercies for the victims.

And just as forgiving that oppressor and freeing that beast constitute hundreds of acts of mercilessness to hundreds of poor creatures for the sake of misplaced mercy upon a single creature, so too is the absolute disbeliever who becomes one of those who enters the prison of hell deserving of the threat contained in the following verse إِنَّ اللهَ لاَ يَغْفِرُ أَن يُشْرَكَ بِهِ . (a)

This in terms of his having transgressed, through his absolute disbelief, the rights of the Divine Names, in denying them; and in terms of having transgressed against the rights of all beings who testify to those Names, by repudiating their testimony;

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a Allāh forgives not the association of partners with Him (Qur’ān: an-Nisā', 4:48)

and in terms of his having transgressed against the rights of all creatures through his denial of their lofty vocations which glorify those Names; and in terms of his having committed a type of transgression against the rights of all created beings by denying the purpose of their creation, and the reason for their being brought into existence and sustained which is so that they respond with worship to the manifestation of the Divine lordship, and that they serve as mirrors of them - and this denial is a huge crime and oppression that there is no door left open for its forgiveness.

His not being sent to hell due to misplaced mercy would constitute endless instances of mercilessness to the illimitable claimants, the rights of whom have been breached. Just as those claimants wish that hell exist, it is likewise absolutely the case that the might of majesty and the sublimity of perfection do so too.

Yes, were a rebellious imprudent man who has transgressed against the rights of citizens of a particular town to [insult] the mighty ruler saying, ‘it is not for you to enter me into prison, nor will it ever be’ there is little doubt that were there to be no existing prison in the town, the ruler would have one built [specially] for this rebellious individual. There he would send him. Likewise does the complete disbeliever in his disbelief severely insult the might of the Divine majesty. With his denial he insults the sublimity of His power.

Through his transgression he slanders the perfection of His lordship. There is no doubt then that the creation of hell for the like of these disbelievers and their being entered therein is the appropriate activity for that might and that majesty 

- even were there not to exist the numerous other reasons and wisdoms in its many duties that make the existence of hell necessary. Moreover, the quiddity of disbelief itself informs us about hell.

Yes, [alternatively], were the quiddity (māhiyyah) of faith to take on physical form, it would take on the shape of a particular paradise with its own pleasures. Thus, from this perspective it implicitly informs us of paradise.

In the same way has it been established with proofs in The Book of Light and alluded to in the foregoing ‘issues’, namely, that dark, terrifying pain and spiritual torments inhere in disbelief,and most especially in the absolute disbelief, hypocrisy and apostasy, such that were disbelief to take physical form, it would become that murtad’s (apostate’s) personal hell.

Thus, it also implicitly informs us of the supreme hell and this poisonous seed further points to the tree of zaqqūm (41) in so far as these sapling-like miniaturised realities existing in the tillage of this world germinate in the hereafter.

This seed says ‘I am a nucleus of the tree of zaqqūm.’ It says, “A private sample of the tree of zaqqūm, for the unfortunate who carries me in his heart becomes my fruit.”

Since disbelief constitutes transgression against an illimitable number of rights, there is no doubt that it is a crime that knows no limits. The perpetrator is thus deserving of limitless punishment. Since human justice accepts punishment by imprisonment for nearly eight million minutes within fifteen years for the murderer who carries out his crime within a single minute and considers this to be in keeping with the best interests and the rights of the public, there is no doubt that a single minute of absolute disbelief causes the one responsible for it

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41. The Zaqqūm Tree is an accursed tree in Hell, the harmful fruit of which the damned will be compelled to eat. (See Qur’ān: ad-Dukhān, 44:43-46) 

to be tormented for around eight billion minutes, in so far as disbelief is like a thousand murders, [and there is no doubt] that this torment is in keeping with the precepts of that justice.

Whomsoever spends a single year of his life in disbelief becomes deserving of a torment lasting nearly two trillion and eight hundred and eighty billion minutes, and he attains the secret of the verse, خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَداً . (a)

In any case, The Wise Qur’ān’s miraculous elucidations concerning paradise and hell as well as the proofs found in The Book of Light - which is an exegesis of the Qur’ān derived therefrom - treating of the existence of paradise and hell, have left no further need for any other exposition.

The many verses, like

وَيَتَفَكَّرُونَ فِي خَلْقِ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِ رَبَّنَا مَا خَلَقْتَ هَذا بَاطِلاً سُبْحَانَكَ فَقِنَا عَذَابَ النَّارِ (b)

and

رَبَّنَا اصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّمَ إِنَّ عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَاماً إِنَّهَا سَاءتْ مُسْتَقَرّاً وَمُقَاماً (c)

as well as all of the prophets continually taking refuge in Allāh from hell, foremost amongst them being the Noble Messenger (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām)

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a They shall abide therein Forever.

b And they reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth. "Our Lord! You have not created this in vain - exalted are You; guard us, then, from the torment of the Fire." (Qur’ān: Āli ‘Imrān, 3:191)

c Our Lord, divert the torment of hell away from us, for surely its torment is a terrible penalty - it is an evil lodging-place and abode. (Qur’ān: al-Furqān, 25:65)

as well as all of the people of Divine reality who had attained certainty about its inevitability based on revelation and gnostic witnessing, all of them saying

أَجرنا من النار، نَجِّنا من النار، خلِّصنا من النار (a)

This all goes together to prove that the most important issue facing man is his salvation from the Fire, Hell is a very momentous, enormous and exceedingly astonishing reality of created beings, such that certain of the people of gnostic witnessing (mushāhadah), mystical unveiling (kashf) and experiential verification (dhawq) in fact witness it, and other of them behold its overspill and its shadows, crying out ‘save us from hell!’ at its terror.

Yes, the encounter of good and evil, pleasure and pain, light and darkness, heat and cold, beauty and ugliness and guidance and misguidance, and the overlapping of each pair of them in this universe is all for the sake of a most immense wisdom.

For if there was no evil, good could not be known, and were there to be no pain, pleasure could not be perceived; and light has no importance without darkness, and it is only through cold existing that the degrees of heat become realised; and a single of beauty’s realities turn into a thousand realities through the existence of ugliness - and thousands of levels of beauty come thereby into existence. Many of the pleasures of paradise would stay hidden without hell - and analogously, all things can from a particular perspective be known by their opposites, and thereby a single reality germinates to become a great number of realities.

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a Save us from the fire, rescue us from the fire and relinquish us from the fire. 

Since these mixed up existents flow from the transient world into the eternal world, and just as things such as good, pleasure, light, beauty and faith flow into paradise, whilst detrimental elements such as evil, pain, darkness, ugliness and disbelief pour into hell, continually gushing and rushing floods of cosmic activities enter those two pools and are then still there. We will cut this subtle point short here, entrusting it to the symbolically rich, subtle points that appear at the end of The Twenty-ninth Word.

Thus, O my companions in study at this Yūsufian School!

A solution and an easy means that saves us from this terrifying, eternal prison, other than making sure we benefit from this worldly prison, which in any case forcibly stops us from committing many sins, is to repent from our old sins and to carry out our worship obligations. As a result of this, every single hour of our lives spend in this prison will be as if an entire day of worship. This then is the very best opportunity for us to save ourselves from that everlasting prison, and for us to enter into that luminous paradise - and if we waste this opportunity, our hereafter will weep just as our life here wept, and we will be dealt the blow of خَسِرَ الدُّنْيَا وَالْآخِرَةَ . (a)

The Eid of Sacrifice (‘īdu’l-aḍḥā) arrived as I was writing this part. Allāh Most High’s making one fifth of humanity - three hundred million people - say Allāhu akbar, Allāhu akbar together, and the takbīr, الله أكبر Allāhu akbar of the more than twenty thousand ḥajj pilgrims upon the mountain of ‘Arafāt on Eid as if they are reciting this holy phrase of الله أكبر Allāhu akbar all together and simultaneously,

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a He has lost both this world and the hereafter. (Qur’ān: al-Ḥaj, 22:11)

as great as the vast globe of the earth to make its [planet] friends in the heavens hear.

I realised that this is all a response to the universal manifestation of Divine lordship under the sublime titles of رَبِّ الْأَرْضِ and رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ Lord of the earth and, Lord of the worlds within a vast, universal act of worship, as if it were a kind of echo of the words الله أكبر Allāhu akbar as recited by the Messenger along with his family and companions more than one thousand three hundred years ago, and that he also ordered to be recited. I visualised, felt and became quite certain of all the above. I then reminded myself ‘I wonder if this holy phrase has any connection to the issue that we are here treating of?’ It immediately occurred to me:

This phrase [Allāhu akbar] being in the first place and like many other sacred bywords of Islām - such as subhānAllāh, alḥamdulillāh and lā ilāha illallāh that carry the title of al-bāqiyatu’ṣ-ṣāliḥāt ‘good deeds [which in the sight of Allāh involve] ever-abiding rewards’ - evoke both particular and universal aspects of our issue, and point to its being realised.

For example: One of the facets of the meanings of الله أكبر Allāhuakbar is that the power and knowledge of Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘ālā) is greater and more sublime than anything. Nothing can possibly escape from the domain of His knowledge, nor can anything escape or be freed from the free disposal of His power. They [the knowledge and power of Allāh] are far greater than the greatest of the things we fear.

Thus, they are greater even than the bringing about of the Resurrection, and than saving us from nonexistence, and than conferring endless bliss upon us. Indeed, it is greater

than all strange and marvellous matters, even those the intellect cannot conceive of; the Resurrection and Gathering of mankind is as easy as the creation of a single person for that power, as [conveyed by] the conclusive clarity of the verse مَا خَلْقُكُمْ وَلَا بَعْثُكُمْ إِلَّا كَنَفْسٍ وَاحِدَةٍ . (a)

When dealing with great disasters or momentous demands, it is on the basis of this reality that all say, “Allāh is Great, Allāh is Great” [which is tantamount to a repeated phrase like “All will be better soon and Allāh will help us.”] They make this thereby into a solace and strength and a point of reliance for themselves.

Yes, as has been mentioned in The Ninth Word; just as this phrase and its two companions SubḥānAllāh and Alḥamdulillāh are seeds and encapsulations of the Prayer, which is itself an index of all types of worship, and just as their being repeated in the Prayer and in the glorifications after the Prayer constitutes a strengthening of the meaning of the Prayer, so too do they (SubḥānAllāh, Alḥamdulillāh, Allāhu Akbar) point to three sublime realities and respond powerfully to such of man’s questions as arise from the bewilderment, pleasure and awe that man feels and finds when faced with the wondrous, beautiful, sublime and numerous things that he sees in the universe, and which are the pivot of bewilderment, gratitude, sublimity and grandeur.

As has been explained at the end of The Sixteenth Word, just as a soldier at Eid, enters into the presence of the sultan

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a The creation and resurrection of all of you is as that of a single soul (Qur’ān: Luqmān, 31:28)

with a field marshal, whereas the rest of the year he is only able to contact him through making use of the rank of a commanding officer that he knows, in the same way, every person at ḥajj (pilgrimage) comes to know the Truth through His title رَبِّ الْأَرْضِ and رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ Lord of the earth and Lord of the worlds), to a degree like the saints do.

And every time those degrees of Divine grandeur are unveiled to his heart, again by way of its repetition the phrase الله أكبر (Allāhu akbar) comes to answer all of the repeated, bewildered, insistent questions that overwhelm his spirit.

As has been clarified at the end of The Thirteenth Flash:

Just as the phrase الله أكبر (Allāhu akbar) tears out the roots of the satans’ most dangerous plots, answering them conclusively, and just as it gives an abridged yet powerful response to our question concerning the hereafter, so too does the phrase الله أكبر (Allāhu akbar) evoke and necessitate the resurrection. To us, it says: ‘my meaning is incomplete without the existence of the hereafter, for instances of praise and gratitude from beginningless to endless eternity, irrespective of the identity of the thanker and the thanked, are exclusively for Him alone.

As I mentioned before, amongst all blessings the most primary, and the element that makes blessings true blessings, and that rescues all sentient beings from the illimitable tribulations of non-being can only be endless bliss alone - and this bliss corresponds to that universal meaning of mine’.

Yes, every believer’s saying, according to the dictates of the sharī‘a, Alḥamdulillāh, Alḥamdulillāh a total of at least one hundred and fifty times 

after the prescribed prayers every day and its meanings expressing praise and gratitude as expansive as beginningless and endless eternity is no other than the advance price and prepaid payment for paradise and endless happiness.

[My meaning, which comprises praise and الحمد لله is not limited or specific to the blessings of this world, tainted as it is with many brief and transient pains. Rather, it only turns the believer to the blessings of this world in so far as they are means of blessings that are endless, so that he will thereby show gratitude for them. As for the holy phrase SubḥānAllāh that conveys the fact of Allāh’s being Holy and Transcendent above having a partner, inadequacy, deficiency, oppression, powerlessness, mercilessness, neediness, deception, and any other defects that would constitute the opposites of His perfection, beauty and majesty - it evokes, signifies and indicates endless bliss, the hereafter and paradise therein, which are the medium by which the majesty, beauty, perfection and the sublimity of the sultanate of Allāh (subḥānahu wa ta‘ālā) [become manifest]. Otherwise, as was just established, were there to be no endless bliss, His sultanate, perfection, majesty, beauty and mercy would be marred by the blemishes of inadequacy and deficiency.

Thus, just as each of باسم الله (Bismillāh) and لا إله إلا الله (Lā ilāha illallāh) and all other blessed phrases, like the foregoing three holy phrases, are seeds and encapsulations of the articles of faith and encapsulation of the realities of the Qur’ān, like unto the meat and sugar extracts that have been discovered in recent times; and just as these three phrases are seeds of the prayer and of the Qur’ān, appearing at the beginning 

of certain sūras shining like diamonds, so too are they the true sources, bases of The Book of Light - the inspirations (sunuhāt) of which begin these litanies - and the seed of its realities.

They likewise constitute the litanies of the Muḥammadan Ṭarīqah (way) with respect to the Aḥmadan Sainthood (42) and the Muḥammadan Servanthood (‘alayhisṣalātu wassalām), in the circles of Divine remembrance that take place after the Prayer such that more than one hundred million believers repeat it all together in any given Prayer time in that supreme circle of Divine remembrance. Grasping their rosaries in their hands, they say سبحان الله (SubḥānAllāh) thirty three times, الحمد لله (Alḥamdulillāh) thirty three times, and الله أكبر (Allāhu akbar) thirty three times.

You must doubtlessly have grasped the extent to which reciting these three blessed phrases after the Prayer thirty three times in the like of that supreme gathering of Divine remembrance (circle of dhikr) is precious and greatly rewarded, phrases that are, as we have explained, encapsulations and seeds of the Qur’ān, faith and the Prayer. Thus, just as The First Issue at the opening of this epistle is a beautiful lesson about the Prayer, so has its ending, without any prior planning or intention, ended up being an important lesson about the litanies (tasbiḥāt) of the Prayer. الحمد لله على إنعامه . (a)

سُبْحَانَكَ لاَ عِلْمَ لَنَا إِلاَّ مَا عَلَّمْتَنَا إِنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْعَلِيمُ الحْكِيمُ (b)

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a May Allāh be praised for His bestowals!

b Glory be to You! We have no knowledge except that which You have taught us, surely You are the All-Knowing, the Wise. (Qur’ān: al-Baqarah, 2:32)

42. Sainthood (walāyat) is kasbī (acquired), that is, one’s power of desire and want for imān (faith) and ‘ubūdiyyah (worshipful servanthood) by one’s own will. People are divided into different levels and stations in regards to their “kasb” or acquisition (of good deeds). The kasb of some people go as high as the level of walāyat (sainthood) while others go as low as the level of denial and unbelief (kufr). Human will is important in this matter. If a person uses their will to be a servant to Allāh, Allāh opens ways to walāyat and He makes them develop in this field. In these ways of sainthood, man’s will has a share although it is a minor one. If man does not use their will in this field, Allāh does not open ways for them. Thus, in sainthood, being kasbī by one’s own decision is important. Being kasbī is valid for sainthood while wahbī (bestowed by Allāh) is of nubuwwah (prophethood) which is given by Allāh. Sainthood cannot reach the level of prophethood.